To: s-acc@yahoogroups.com

From: "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com>

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:40:56 -0700

Subject: Re: [s-acc] Re: study group idea

 

Hi

Hhh wrote:

And..for I think this question is relevant...how do these questions and discussions help any of us to get a handle on

  1. ways to better our own lives, and/or
  2. ways to resist and contest the various oppressions that the "system" inflicts on us and our friends/cohorts/peers/constituents/etc?

My, Hhh, you are such a sceptic!

It's true our movement has not been centered on either of these agendas. Retraumatization and self-interest have played too much of a role. But S-ACC was set up by folks who felt they had some kind of an angle on the questions you raise.

I ran into Jack in the supermarket today. He told me he had just retired (as an E.E. Professor at San Jose State). Jack was an open Communist Party member whose first wife had been one of the leaders of Berkeley's Free Speech Movement. I know him from Berkeley politics and .. from his being involved in a Communist 'cell' at SJSU. When I wrote here that the Santa Clara County M.H. 'blinked', it was related to how the M.H. Director (who comes from a family of Social Democrats) had failed to engage the radicalism of our "client" networking there. The CPUSA had .. discipline. Are you acquainted with the disciplined interaction of the Communists and the Social Democrats?

The question is, how does one do #1 and #2 SERIOUSLY? The 'study group idea' is based on the traditions of U.S. human rights activism. In that sense it reaches to the mentality of the grassroots, not merely to the mentality of some more narrowly focused activists.

I told Jack about M.L. King Jr.'s speech in this area (I just put a link to it on the S-ACC website, BTW). It was a point well taken, as he had not heard of that speech. I feel my assessment of 'blink' was indeed well-taken.

 

Andrew